Monday, 20 February 2017

Lee Cockburn on Why is Edinburgh a great place for a setting for a Crime Thriller?

Edinburgh, what can I say, it is a
joy to live here, you have everything, history, beauty, the sea, scenery,
culture, art, great architecture, wealth and poverty side by side, the
Edinburgh festival, and even though it is a city, sometimes it feels like a
small town, because you are always bumping into people you know.Edinburgh is where I live,
Edinburgh is where I work, all of my family lived here, so I know this as home
and why would I write about any other place, when this city has
everything.If you have never been to
Edinburgh, then I think you need to visit; it‘s a wonderful place.The castle is magnificent as it
stands high above Princess Street in the centre of town, almost watching over
all of us, the royal mile leads you from the castle down this historic street,
with many dark and mysterious alleyways leading away to other parts of the old
town, filled with historic mystery, each of them telling many stories, of
romance, crime and poverty of the past, all the way down to the palace and the
parliament.The centre of the city has great
wealth, but hidden in many doorways of shops are the least fortunate in
society, the homeless struggling to keep warm and safe, the contrast, so sad
and unfair.This takes me to the reason why I
chose Edinburgh for my novels, having lived and worked here all of my life, you
see everything, both good and bad, especially when you are in the police.In the police you learn quickly
that there are many, many good people, which far outweigh the bad, and thank
goodness for that, but you see the bad as a collective every day and you then
notice them as you lead your normal life, constantly watching who is around you
as you try to live your private life safely.There are many areas where crime and violence are an every day
occurrence, and this is where the police go, to try and help those that need
help and want it, but unfortunately some don‘t want it and can‘t be helped, and
have chosen their path of criminality, constantly clashing with the police and
those in the law abiding society, trying to protect themselves and their
property.I chose this city because of the
diversity it offers, the wide variety of people living side by side, wealthy
areas metres away from those that have less, many good people in these areas
struggling for a better life, sometimes suffering with those that have chosen
crime and addiction living right next to them.These choices lead to crime filtering through to the more affluent
areas, hard working people, trying to protect their property from those who
don’t respect others.Edinburgh just offers so much,
although my books don’t visit the more historic areas that often, they tend to
keep to the outskirts, and try to make it more realistic to where criminality
is more of an issue.Saying all that, diversity is what
life is all about, trying to understand the lives of others and what they are
going through, everybody has a story and some are much harder to live through
and there are reasons for everything. I love Edinburgh it just offers
everything, especially for a crime writer.

Porcelain: Flesh of
Innocents

Detective Sergeant Taylor Nicks is back and in
charge of tracking down a sadistic vigilante, with a penchant for torturing
paedophiles, in this unsettling crime thriller by a real-life police sergeant. High-powered businessmen are turning up tortured around the city of Edinburgh
with one specific thing in common — a sinister double life involving
pedophilia. Leaving his ‘victims’ in a disturbing state, the individual
responsible calls the police and lays bare the evidence of their targets’
twisted misdemeanours to discover, along with a special memento of their own
troubled past — a chilling calling card. Once again heading the investigation
team is Detective Sergeant Taylor Nicks, along with her partner Detective Constable
Marcus Black, who are tasked not only with tracking the perpetrator down but
also dealing with the unusual scenario of having to arrest the victims for
their own barbarous crimes. But with the wounded piling up the predator’s
thirst for revenge intensifies and soon Nicks discovers that she is no longer
chasing down a sinister attacker but a deadly serial killer.Lee
Cockburn has worked for Police Scotland for sixteen years including as a police
sergeant in Edinburgh for seven years and also as a public order officer.
Before joining the force, she played for Scotland Women’s rugby team for
fifteen years, earning over eighty caps for the Scottish ladies and British
Lionesses teams. She also swam competitively for twelve years, successfully
representing Edinburgh at the age of fifteen in the youth Olympics in Denmark
in 1984.

For more information you can follow Lee Cockburn on Twitter @lee_leecockburn.